The war within the war

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Gen. Baha Hussein Abed commands thousands of Iraqi soldiers in Mosul. The Sunni Arab blames Kurds and foreigners for almost all of the violence in Mosul, though there is little evidence to back up his assertion.


The war within the war
By Heath Druzin, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, March 4, 2009

MOSUL, Iraq - Nooses fashioned from heavy black cables hang from the rafters, collecting dust in a smashed metal building across from an Iraqi army headquarters in this northern city.

The buildings, once used by insurgents to torture and execute those they considered infidels, stand as a monument to the sectarian hatreds that have made Mosul Iraq’s most dangerous city. Increasingly, though, they also represent growing tensions among those meant to defend the city from religious extremists.

As U.S. and Iraqi forces start to make gains in one of the last urban insurgent strongholds, a war of words among the Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish military units here is threatening to widen the divisions among Mosul’s ethnic groups and to distract Iraqi soldiers and police from a crucial effort to clear the city of militants.

In the mind of Gen. Baha Hussein Abed, all of Mosul’s problems stem from foreigners. Syria, Iran, Kuwait, even the United Arab Emirates are sending militants to destabilize the city, according to Baha, though no one has done more harm, he says, than the Kurds.

"There is a conspiracy," the Sunni Arab general said of his Kurdish security forces counterparts’ alleged plans to control the city.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61096